Lake Urmia shows a range of dark and light red hues of water, framed by white salt flats, in this image of Iran. Also visible in the full image is Lake Van, in Turkey, and the Caspian Sea. Lake Urmia has been shrinking in recent years, in part due to the ecological changes from the construction of a causeway across the lake, and in part due to a recent drought that has significantly decreased the annual amount of water the lake receives.

Although measures are now being taken to reverse the trend, the lake has shrunk by 60 percent and could disappear entirely. On August 2nd 2012, Mohammad Javad Mohammadzadeh, the head of Iran’s Environment Protection Organization, announced that Armenia have agreed on transferring water from Armenia to counter the critical fall in Lake Urmia’s water levels, remarking the body of water had reached its lowest water levels ever recorded.